Wednesday -
Daniel and I were planning on visiting the Washington Monument but found out that you had to be there by 6:30am in order to get the free tickets before the school field trips got a hold of all of them. So, unfortunately we missed out on getting to go up in the monument.
Next, we decided to head over to the Holocaust museum. Luckily we got there early enough to get a hold of some tickets. We spent hours at this museum and I didn't realize how big it was. It was in my opinion too big. My favorite part was getting to listen to a survivor talk about the Holocaust and what she went through. She was the only one that ended up surviving in her family. (Tidbit from Daniel...For those who haven't checked out the Holocaust museum in Houston, it is really worth it. Not nearly the size as the DC one, but just as touching, if not more.)
After we left the Holocaust museum, we got something to eat, grabbed our bags from the hotel and headed over to our new hotel. The whole reason for this trip was for Daniel's work conference. We decided to come out to Washington, D.C. 5 days before and do some sight seeing. The second half of the vacation we were going to be staying at The Westin in Arlington, VA. After we dropped off our bags at the hotel, we decided to go walk around. I was really happy to see a mall less than a block from our hotel.
Thursday - Sunday
Daniel was going to be in his classes from about 8am till 5pm everyday Thursday through Saturday. I was perfectly fine with this and glad that I could relax and rest my feet. I didn't do anything too exciting while Daniel was gone but I did go to the mall one afternoon. I was sad to see when I arrived and actually looked at the map that this mall was mostly fast food restaurants. The only clothing stores were Macy's and Wet Seal. So of course I went to both stores and picked up some shirts and a pair of really cute shorts. I was on the third floor so I did not realize that he had started to storm. I headed for the door and realized that I was going to be stuck in this mall for who knows how long because I had walked and did not have an umbrella. So I just sat down and waited for the storm to pass. After it had stopped raining hard, I decided to head back to the hotel. It was still raining but not too hard. I had a very difficult time walking back because I was wearing flip flops which are extremely slippery when they are wet and so I had to walk really slow.
Since Daniel was having his classes at the same hotel we were staying at, we were able to go eat lunch together every day. At night time, we usually just ate around somewhere close to the hotel. One night we decided to head over to Georgetown. Instead of taking the metro we decided to take a taxi. This was my first time in a taxi in the United States, so I was excited. Georgetown is a girl's dream come true. I had never seen so many clothing shops in my life in one area. It was a really pretty place too. I actually didn't end up buying anything but I was tempted to several times. After an hour of two of walking around, we decided to stop by a pizza restaurant and grab a bite to eat. It wasn't too bad and we made sure to save room for dessert.
Daniel and I decided to fly United here just because I used my frequent flier miles and was able to purchase a round trip ticket to DC for $10. If I didn't have this basically free ticket, United would have probably been our last choice. We are not fans if you can't tell. We had gone to Japan on United and had a tons of problems with this airline and so we both ended up with about $1000 each in ticket vouchers. Well then we ended up using that money to fly all different places like Hawaii, Chicago and Utah. We flew for free so many times that Daniel and I ended up with a free ticket through frequent flier miles. In a way, it's been great for us. It just seems like every time we fly United, something bad happens, like this time. To make a long story short, we boarded the plane and as it was about to take off, the pilot announced that he had an engine failure. After waiting for an hour and a half on board while a mechanic checked it out, we ended up having to deboard and find other flights. We made it home on an American flight but with out our bags. Once we arrived in DFW we spent a good hour or two searching for where United left our suitcases. Overall, we have been grateful for all the free flights, but somewhat releived that we are no longer tied to United...
So getting to Washington, we had no problems. But on our way home is a different story. We get to the airport a few hours early and decide to eat at Fridays before going through security. Well everything was going smoothly and we ended up getting on the airplane with no problems. We start to take driving towards the runway and the plane stops. The pilot gets on the intercoms and tells us the the engine lights has tuned on and we are heading back to the gate. Usually they don't have mechanics working today at this airport but luckily there were two United mechanics eating lunch at the airport. So luck was on our side....or so we had thought. Well they come check it out and discover that whoever worked on it last had overfilled the oil. So they thought that they would just drain out the excess oil and hopefully that would fix the problem. After doing that they turn on the engine and turn it off almost immediately. Daniel and I knew that had to be a bad sign. Then they turn it on again and let it run a little longer. Now remind you it has been over two hours now that we have been sitting on this airplane with no air condition. So we knew that there was no way now that we were going to make our connecting flight from Chicago to Dallas. Also while on the plane, we were lucky enough to sit next to a lady that was very interesting. She owns her own business and does space medicine. Basically, say you go up into space and you get a headache. Well Tylenol doesn't work in space and so that is where she come in. I had never heard or thought about that ever and Daniel was just fascinated with talking with her. Ok now back to the plane. Well the pilot comes on and says that the flight has been canceled. So he tells us to get off and go talk to the TWO kiosk people working. Now let me remind you that there are 150 people on this plane and we are sitting the the back. Also it will take a minimum of 5 minutes per person....so try adding that up. Well we got out and starting waiting in line and finally one of the kiosk people comes on over the intercom and tells us this is going to take a long time and it would be best to call United using our phones and rebook that way. So Daniel pulls out his phone as we decide to go back out through security and to the front where you would buy tickets and check your bags. Luckily we knew right were to go and we were only 2nd in line. But unfortunately, everyone who is there already or who comes up to check in gets priority in front of us. Well Daniel is on the phone talking to a United representative and he tells Daniel that he has a flight for him at 4:40. So Daniel looks at his watch and realizes that it is 3:38. He tells the guy that there is no way that is going to work. It will take us longer than two minutes for him to finish booking us and go back through security and walk to the gate. He didn't quite understand that that wouldn't work and asked if we were sure. Smart guy! Well while Daniel is on the phone, I was able to go talk to the kiosk lady and she got me a straight flight to DFW flying American airlines. While Daniel is on the phone he realizes that he phone is going dead and so he tells the guy to forget it and the kiosk lady will take care of it since she was almost finished with me.
So we get our tickets and have to go back through security. Well since we had already gone through security once that day, we had to do the detail security where they search you and your bags. They were really slow and we didn't have too much time. We finally made it through and got on the plane. Then right before we were suppose to take off, the pilot comes on and said that there was a storm coming and so we had to wait in line to take off. I think we were like 12th in line. So finally, about another half hour later we get in the air.
So when we land, we realize that that we don't know if our bags flew in on United or American. The American guy tells us that they are probably on United, which is in a different terminal. So then we have to wait for the bus to take us to the United terminal. Luckily when we got there, our bags were just sitting in the middle of the room. Then we had to wait for another bus to take us to our car. So even though we landed at 8 something, we didn't end up getting home until 11:30 that night. Now that was a long day. Oh and because our flight ended up getting canceled, Daniel and I ended up with another $100 in ticket vouchers. We are never going to run out of United vouchers with the way this is going.
